Background...

The Sinister Six had disbanded during the 'Return of the Sinister Six'
storyline printed in Amazing Spider-Man #334-339. Doctor Octupus had betrayed
the other members in his attempt for world domination, which was stopped by
Spider-Man.

Erik Larsen, who had penciled the 'Return' storyline, is back again to pencil
this six-issue arc, but this time he has also taken over the writing chores.
This is the second issue he's written (Spider-Man #15 was the first). Marvel
had basically handed this Spider-Man book over completely to Todd McFarlane
and Larsen for its first 23 issues.

At the time, the two artists had been taking a lot of negative feedback for
their writing skills.

The book opens with instant action as Spider-Man and Ghost Rider attempt to
stop a rampaging cyborg in a shopping mall. Neither hero recognizes the half-
man, half-robot and its dialouge doesn't lend any clues as to where he's come
from. The cyborg is confused, scared, and lashing out wildly. He swats Ghost
Rider away as if he were nothing and causes Spidey to dodge a hail of bullets
before taking off into the sky. Spidey tags a web-line and is dragged into
the air as Ghost Rider rides his bike up the side of a skyscraper, jumps from
it and connects with a punch to the cyborg's face. Very cool move.

Spidey and Ghost Rider are able to weigh the cyborg down, smash through a
billboard, and send him corralling into an abandoned building. The building
collapses and buries the cyborg in debris as Spidey attempt to go after him.
The two heroes only watch and wonder if they will ever know what this
confrontation was all abour, but are happy its over. Spider-Man swings to
drop Ghost Rider off at his bike and is then going to call S.H.I.E.L.D. to
pick up the body. The cyborg, however, is stumbling from the rubble unnoticed
and still mumbling gibberish.

Meanwhile, the Sandman is checking in on the Casada family. The Casadas used
to let him board with them, but where forced to ask him to leave when the
media was alerted to his presence there (Amazing Spider-Man #348). Doctor
Octupus had threatened to kill the family if Sandman didn't go along with the
last Sinister Six team-up, and there is still the concern that he'd go through
with it since Sandman had betrayed them (Amazing Spider-Man #334-339).
Naturally, the entire house explodes before his eyes. While holding one of
the Casadas in his hands, Sandman swears revenge on Doc Ock and 'won't stop
until you're dead!!'.

Doc Ock is busy obtaining the admantium arms that he had been searching years
for. They were created a long while ago (Daredevil #165) and now he finally
gets to use them. The 'old man' that he had gotten them from demands
payment. Instead, Doc Ock kills him and then rips apart the army of robots
that the old man had brought as back-up. The villian isn't even trying as he
tears the robotic army to shreds and revels in his newfound might. After its
over, he takes the massive amount of weaponry left from the old man while
thinking of needing more (including men, 'some I can mold, manipulate to do my
bidding').

There's a two-page spread of an argument between Peter and M.J. She was just
offered a starring role in the new Arnold Schwarzenheimer movie, but it
involves nude scenes. Peter isn't comfortable with it and M.J. storms off
while calling him a 'square'.

Sandman meets up with the former members of the Sinister Six to get revenge on
Doctor Octupus. Vulture, Mysterio, Electro, and the Hobgoblin are all in.
Actually, its unclear as to wether this Hobgoblin is Jason Macendale or the
demonic part separated from him in Web of Spider-Man #85. Anyway, Sandman
lets them know that he's in this just for revenge for what happened to the
Casadas. He goes to the hospital to visit Mrs. Casada and decides that he's
going to need a back-up man because of his distrust for the Sinister Six.

He then hangs around the Daily Bugle for Spider-Man. Once they find each
other, Sandman asks Spidey to come along as back-up to take down Ock. Spidey
must have agreed, because the next scene involves the Sinister Five sneaking
into one of Doc Ock's warehouses to take him down while he's watching from the
rafters. Doc Ock lets them know he was expecting them as Spider-Man looks on,
his spider-sense going off because of a huge figure on the roof of the
warehouse.

In General...

Not a bad first issue to this storyline, but not a very good one either.
Everything happens a little too simply here and without much explanation. Why
was Ghost Rider invlolved in the first eight pages during a fight with an
unknown cyborg? Who was the 'old man' that Doc Ock got his new arms from and
why wasn't he more prepared to be double-crossed? Any arms dealer with
admantium tentacles for the murderous Doc would know what he's getting into.
Who is behind the Hobgoblin character? Finally, if it were so easy for the
Sandman to convince his former partners to get back together for revenge on
Doc Ock, why didn't they do it sooner?

I think all of these questions are answered by the fact that Erik Larsen is a
great artist but a terrible writer. How do you hide a story without much
substance? Splash pages, guest-stars galore, and lots and lots of action.
Unfortunately, the rest of this storyline has a lot more of the same.

However, anything with the Sinister Six is worth picking up. If nothing else,
you get an update as to what Spider-Man's most menacing foes are up to.

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